Parents of teen want D.A. to probe Halloween-case cops

Advance photo/Michael OatesAttorney Jason Leventhal, left, and Telisa and James Hezel, the parents of teen Rayshawn Moreno, call for charges against cops at a press conference.

The attorney and parents of a Staten Island teen who was picked up by cops for throwing eggs on Halloween and allegedly driven to a secluded wooded area, stripped and left by himself, are now calling for District Attorney Daniel Donovan to indict the two cops on myriad charges -- including kidnapping.

Attorney Jason Leventhal, along with the alleged victim, Rayshawn Moreno, and his parents, said earlier this afternoon that they are urging Donovan to charge the two officers, Thomas Elliassen and Richard Danese, with kidnapping, unlawful imprisonment, assault and endangering the welfare of a child. He is also asking Donovan to determine whether the cops, who are white, violated the Hate Crimes Act of 2000 when they took the 14-year-old boy, who is black, into custody.

In a statement, Donovan said that his office is conducting an investigation, and also said that he plans to interview the boy.

On Halloween, Elliassen and Danese, both 28, claim to have seen Moreno throwing eggs at a car in Mariners Harbor around 8:30 p.m. In what they said was an effort to put a scare into the teen, they picked him up and drove him to a swampy area in Travis near the West Shore Expressway.

The teen claims the cops forced him to strip down to his underwear and drove off.

Moreno, who lives in Graniteville, walked to a Burlington Coat Factory store on South Avenue wearing only boxer shorts and socks, and asked a security guard there to call his parents, who picked him up, according to his father, James Hezel.

The two cops have been charged with unlawful imprisonment and endangering the welfare of a child, both punishable by up to a year in jail.